These are British army / military handcuffs from 1956. They are stamped with the British government or military broad arrow symbol. These are only slightly different than those that were used during WWII World War 2.It is a screw style mechanism and are not adjustable to different wrist sizes.
There were 3 sizes made, though it is unlikely that military or police would carry all 3 sizes in my opinion due to weight, which is why the ratchet handcuff was to be adopted not too long after these R.C.S versions of the Darby style cuffs were used. This style of cuff has been made by various brands, most notably HIATT.
This style is surprisingly comfortable, considering that this design dates to the mid 1800's. As long as your wrist fits in the bracelet, they are relatively comfortable.The screw mechanism is very simple. A STRONG spring keeps the pawl in the closed position and when you screw the key in, it progressively pulls the pawl plunger outwards, enabling you to open the handcuff.These have the Victorian / Sherlock Holmes vibe to them because the basic style is so old. But they are effective and designs like this are still used in some eastern countries like Pakistan.
I also demo these behind my back so you get an additional view of how they look and restrict.
These are not the quickest handcuffs to operate! The springs are extremely strong and often hard to snap shut. You can imagine how inconvenient and possibly pointless and dangerous it would be to have to screw a key so many times to lock handcuffs on someone's wrist if you did not have enough strength in your hands to snap them shut! The modern swing-through ratchet handcuff was so much of an improvement that it has become the standard world-wide to replace this design.
Enjoy!
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